Privacy policy

At hostelcritic.com, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This privacy policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by hostelcritic.com and how we use it.

If you have additional questions or require more information about our privacy policy, do not hesitate to contact us through email at tim@hostelcritic.com.

How we use your details

When you write a review, you are able to either set up your own account or log in using your Facebook, Google or Twitter account. Your username (or your Facebook, Google or Twitter username) will be displayed next to your review. Either a Gravatar, or your Facebook, Google or Twitter avatar will be shown next to your review. We use Janrain to manage your social media login. If you create an account with us to post a review, we will not use your details for any purpose other than to post the review on our website. We will not sell or disclose your details to any third party, except when required to by law. If you post a review by logging in with your Facebook, Google or Twitter account, the way your personal details are used will be governed by the privacy policy of the respective social media network.

Refer to the privacy policies of the following companies for more details:

Facebook

Google

Gravatar

Janrain

Twitter

If you book accommodation through hostelcritic.com, your accommodation booking may be processed by either BookIt (for some hostels in New Zealand) or HostelWorld (for all other hostels). When you make a booking, you will be taken to the website of one of these third-party booking agencies and the way your personal details are used will be governed by the privacy policy of the respective company that processes your booking.

Refer to the privacy policies of the following companies for more details:

BookIt

HostelWorld

If you sign up to our mailing list, we may send you an occasional email. We do not sell or disclose these details to anyone. We use Mail Chimp, a third-party service, to manage these emails. Refer to Mail Chimp's privacy policy for more details.

Our website is built using CrowdVox, which use cookies and related technology to work effectively.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files that are served by our platform and stored on your device. Our site uses cookies dropped by us or third parties for a variety of purposes including to operate and personalise the website. Also, cookies may also be used to track how you use the site and to target ads to you on other websites.

Cookies used by hostelcritic.com may include cookies from third-party companies including AdRoll, Facebook and Google.

You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. To know more detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers, it can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

Your rights to your data

You have all the rights to your data as laid out by the European Union's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Since we don't sell anything to people using our website (accommodation bookings are processed by either BookIt or HostelWorld) this pertains to your name and email address you may give us if you sign up for your our email newsletter and the user name and avatar photograph you may supply when writing a review on our site.

In short your rights to your data are as follows:

Your right to be informed You have the right to know how your data will be used and this should be clear from reading this privacy policy.

Your right of access to your data This is almost the same as your right to be informed. Essentially, you have the right to know what personal data we hold (only the name or username you give us and your email address) and how this data is processed (your name is used to address emails to you, your email address is used to send your email and your name or username you supply when writing a review is displayed next to any review you write).

Your right of rectification You have the right to update any details we hold about you. Did you spell your name wrong? Has your name or email address changed? Do you now want to be known as Sexyloverboy69? Just let us know and we will update your details.

Your right to erasure (your right to be forgotten) Basically nothing you write on hostelcritic.com is permanent if you don't want it to be. If you decide that you no longer want people to read any reviews you have written, just let us know and we will remove them. Alternately, we can leave your reviews online but remove or change your username. It's up to you.

Your right to restrict processing You have the right to stop us from doing anything with your data. Easy. We don't do anything with your data that isn't mentioned in this privacy policy and we have no plans to. Nothing to worry about here.

Your right to data portability You have the right to do what you want with your own data. While we maintain copyright of our content on this website, any reviews you write remain your own data. Do you want to write the exact same review on HostelWorld or Tripadvisor? Go for it. It's your data and you can use it as you wish. Just don't cut and paste other people's reviews because they're not yours.

Your right to object You have the right to object to how your data is being used. That shouldn't be a problem as we're not going to do anything with it that isn't mentioned on this privacy policy.

Your rights of automated decision making and profiling We don't do anything like this with your data so there is nothing to be concerned with.

In short: if you want to change your name, your username or your email address just let us know and we will update this for you. Likewise, if you no longer want your reviews on our site, just let us know and we will remove them for you.

The above applies not only to reviews that you write yourself, but also to reviews other people write and photos they upload to our site. While you can't remove other people's reviews (and they can't remove your reviews) if you are mentioned by name in someone else's review just let us know and we will remove your name from the review. Likewise if someone uploads a photo of you to our site, just let us know and we will either remove the photo or pixilate out your face or anything that identifies yourself in the photo.

There are a couple of things that need to be mentioned, specifically because some aspects of our website are not controlled by ourselves. Our partners are compliant with GDPR, which means that you still have all the above rights even if it is for something outside our control. Specifically:

If an avatar photo is displayed next to your review, we can't change this for you. Your avatar photo is imported in from your Facebook, Google, Gravatar or Twitter profile so you need to update your avatar on one of these these other sites.

If you have signed up for our email newsletter, then your email details will be held with Mailchimp. Although Mailchimp are based in the United States, they are compliant with GDPR regulation including the US–EU/Swiss Privacy Shield. We have access to update and remove your contact details, which means that you are able to contact us directly to remove or update any of these details for you.

If you signed in write a review using your Facebook, Google or Twitter login details, then your avatar photo and username will be the same as those used by these respective social media networks and you will need to log into your Facebook, Google or Twitter account to update these details. Facebook, Google and Twitter are compliant with GDPR regulations so it is possible to update or change any details simply by logging into your account.

Online privacy policy only

This privacy policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collect on hostelcritic.com. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.

Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our privacy policy and agree to its terms and conditions.

Update

This privacy policy was last updated on 19 May 2018. If there will be any update, amendment, or changes to our privacy policy then these will be posted on this page.

Contact details

If you contact us, you can email tim@hostelcritic.com or phone us at 020 3286 2828 (+44 20 3286 2828 from outside the United Kingdom).